2^2 THE PHILOSOPHY 



mong their mountains and their ftorms. If fouthern nations' 

 afford examples of people who feed nearly on vegetables a- 

 lone, the Laplanders furnifh one of the oppofite extreme ; 

 for they are almoft entirely carnivorous animals. 



To Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Britain, the fame ob- 

 fervation is applicable. In thefe countries, animal food is 

 much more ufed than in France, Spain, Italy, Barbary, and 

 the other fouthern regions of the globe. Many reafons may 

 be alligned for thefe differences in the food of nations. The 

 natural productions of the earth depend entirely on the cli- 

 mate. In warm climates, the vegetables which grow ipon- 

 taneoufly are both more luxuriant and more various. The 

 number and richnefs of their fruits far exceed thofe of cold- 

 er regions. From this circumftance, the natives muff be 

 ftim ulated to ufe a proportionally greater quantity of vege- 

 table food ; and we learn from hiftory, and from travellers, 

 that this is a£lually the cafe. In cold countries, on the con- 

 trary, vegetables are not only fewer, but more rigid, and 

 contain lefs nourifliment* The inhabitants, accordingly, are 

 obliged to live principally on animal fubftances. If we ex- 

 amine the mode of feeding in different nations, it will be 

 found, that in proportion as men approach or recede from 

 the poles, a greater or lefs quantity of animal and vegetable 

 fubftances are ufed in their diet. Cuftom, laws, and reli- 

 gious rites, it muff be allowed, produce confiderable differ- 

 ences in the articles of food, among particular nations, which 

 have no dependence on climate, or the natural productions 

 of the earth. But when men are not fettered or prejudifed 

 by extraneous circumftances, or political inftitutions, the na- 

 ture of their food, is invariably determined by the climates 

 they inhabit. The variety of food, in any country, is likewife 

 greatly influenced by culture, and by imitation. Commerce 

 occafionally furniflies new fpecies of food, particularly of the 

 vegetable kind. In Scotland, till about the beginning of this 

 century, the common people lived almoft entirely upon grain^ 



